Engraving machine

ABSTRACT

An improved engraving machine having a cylinder on which is wrapped in side-by-side relation an image to be reproduced and a plate to be engraved with such image, including a scanning member and a cutting member arranged adjacent respective portions of the cylinder for cooperation with the image and the plate to be engraved respectively, the apparatus including means for rotating the cylinder and moving the same axially relative to the scanning and cutting carriages while the latter remain stationary.

Elite States atent 1 1 Barron 1 1 Feb. 13,1973

[54] ENGRAVING MACHTNE [75] Inventor:

[73] Assignee: Graphic Electronics, Inc., LaSalle,

William J. Barron, Peru, Ill.

[22] Filed: Dec. 28, 1970 [211 Appl. No.: 102,018

[52] U.S. Cl. ..178/6.6 B, 346/138 [51] Int. Cl ..G01d 15/00, GOld15/28, H04n 1/24 [58] Field oi Search ..178/6.6 B, 6.7 R; 346/138 [56]References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1968 Zeuthen..... 12/1960 1..l78/6.6 B Fritzinger ..346/138 OTHER PUBLlCATlONS Anderson, WendellG., TK5700QZ pp. 11-17 Primary ExaminerHoward W. Britton Attorney-Gary,Parker, Juettner, Pigott & Cullinan [57] ABSTRACT An improved engravingmachine having a cylinder on which is wrapped in side-by-side relationan image to be reproduced and a plate to be engraved with such image,including a scanning member and a cutting member arranged adjacentrespective portions of the cylinder for cooperation with the image andthe plate to be engraved respectively, the apparatus including means forrotating the cylinder and moving the same axially relative to thescanning and cutting carriages while the latter remain stationary.

5 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures QST November 1965 ENGRAVING MACHINE BRIEFSUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Engraving machines are known for sensing animage on a sheet of copy material and reproducing such image byengraving the same in a metal or plastic plate. Such conventionalengraving machines normally include a plate cylinder on which is wrappeda metal or plastic plate to be engraved, and a copy cylinder on which iswrapped a sheet of paper or a photograph or the like which comprises thecopy material to be engraved on the plate. In such machines, anelectronic scanner carriage and a cutter carriage. are mounted on a feedscrew for movement along an axis parallel to the cylinder axis. The twocylinders are normally mounted on a common shaft for conjoint rotation,and the scanner and cutter carriages are mounted on a common feed screw.The cylinders are rotated, but are not moved axially, while the scannerand cutter carriages are moved axially parallel to the cylinder axis, sothat the scanner apparatus will scan the copy material on the copycylinder and at the same time the cutter will engrave on the plate inresponse to electrical signals received from the scanner.

In a known engraving machine of the foregoing type, the scanner andcutter carriages may be driven in the same or in opposite axialdirections depending upon the purpose to be achieved. If the twocarriages are to be driven in opposite axial directions then the feedscrew may be oppositely threaded on its two ends to effect such adriving relationship. Such a feed screw may be utilized to feed the twocylinders in the same axial direction if one of the carriages isdisengaged from the feed screw and interconnected with the othercarriage so as to be driven conjointly therewith. It will be understoodthat when the two carriages are driven in the same axial direction, aright-reading" image will be engraved on the plate, whereas movement ofthe two carriages in opposite axial directions will cause a reverseimage to be engraved on the plate, i.e., a mirror image of the copymaterial. An engraving machine as described above is disclosed in my US.Pat. No. 3,183,745 which is assigned to the assignee of the instantinvention.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an improvedengraving machine which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture andhighly simplified in its operation and yet fully capable of producinghigh quality right-reading" engravings from conventional copy material.The machine of the present invention is well suited for metal decoratingand the like such as the production of engravings from diplomas,certificates, etc., and it is also well suited for engraving printedcircuit boards in accordance with the method disclosed and claimed in myUS. Pat. No. 3,552,002 which is also assigned to the assignee of mypresent invention.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of my invention will beapparent from the following description of a preferred embodimentthereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1- is a front elevational view of anengraving machine constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view, taken along the line 3-3 of FIG.2, showing the manner in which a plate to be engraved is wrapped on acylinder and anchored thereto;

FIG. 4 is an end elevational view of the machine of FIG. I; I

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially along the line55 of FIG. 4; and

FIGS. 6 and 7 are sectional views taken substantially along the line6--6 of FIG. 5.

Now, in order to acquaint those skilled in the art with the manner ofmaking and using my invention, I shall describe, in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, a preferred embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to the drawings,there is shown a cylinder 10 having a plate portion 12 and a copyportion 14, and adjacent the cylinder are mounted a cutter member 16 anda scanner member 18. The cylinder 10 is mounted on a shaft 20 the endsof which are journalled in upright walls 22 and 24, respectively, whichform a part of a cylinder carriage indicated generally at 26. Thecylinder carriage 26 includes a flat platform member 30 on which the twouprights 22 and 24 are fixedly mounted. Beneath the platform 30, astationary base plate 32 has fixed thereto four bearings 34, 36, 38 and40 in which are journalled the ends of two stationary parallel guiderods 42 ad 44. The platform member 30 is supported on the two guide rods42 and 44 by means of bearings 46, 48, 50 and 52 which extend downwardlyfrom the underside of the platform and permit the latter to slide backand forth along the guide rods.

A feed screw 54 is mounted beneath the cylinder carriage 26. The feedscrew 54 is disposed between the guide rods 42 and 44 and extendsparallel thereto with its outer end journalled in a bearing 56 which isaffixed to the underside of the platform 30. The other end of the feedscrew 54 is journalled in a motor housing 58 and is rotated by a motor60 (see FIG. 5). A second motor 62 is provided to rotate the cylinder10. As best shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the base plate 32 has fixed theretoa pair of stationary block members 64 and 66 each of which has anopening to accommodate a slidable rod 68. A half-nut member 70 iscarried on the end of the rod 68 and is movable with the rod into andout of engagement with the feed screw 54. A compression spring 72 biasesthe half-nut 70 toward the feed screw 54, whereas the half-nut may bedisengaged from the feed screw by moving a handle member 74 on theopposite end of the rod 68 from the position shown in FIG. 6 to theposition shown in FIG. 7. The half-nut member 70 slides on a guide rod76 fixedly carried by the block 66 when the nut member is moved betweenthe operative position of FIG. 6 and the inoperative position of FIG. 7through actuation of the manually operable handle 74.

It will be understood from the foregoing that when the half-nut member70 is operatively engaged with the feed screw 54, and the motor 60 isoperating to rotate the feed screw, the feed screw is moved axiallyrelative to the nut member 70 and thereby moves theentire cylindercarriage 26 including the cylinder 10. Moreover, the motor housing 58 ismounted on the cylinder carriage wall 22, so that the motor housingincluding the cylinder motor 62 and the feed screw motor 60 are shiftedaxially along with the cylinder 10.

FIG. 4 shows a stationary dovetail way 78 for mounting the scannermember 18. The stationary way 78 is mounted on fixed upright walls 80and 82 which in turn are fixedly mounted to the baseplate 32. Thescanner member 18 is mounted on a dovetail base 84 which is slidablyreceived on the way member 78 and locked in a desired position by alocking handle 86. With reference to FIG. 1, a fixed way member 88 isprovided to mount a base member 90 on which the cutter assembly 16 iscarried, whereby the cutter assembly 16 may be moved along the fixed way88 to a desired axial position and locked in that position by anysuitable locking means (not shown). It will further be noted from FIGS.1 and 2 that the cutter assembly includes a feed screw 92 and handle 94for the purpose of permitting adjustment of the cutter assembly towardand away from the plate portion 12 of the cylinder 10.

FIG. 3 shows the manner in which a flexible metal or plastic plate 96 isanchored to the plate portion 12 of the cylinder 10. Such a plate 96 tobe engraved is wrapped around the cylinder and its bent end portions 98and 100 are positioned in a recess 102 formed longitudinally along theexterior portion of the cylinder. Locking members such as shown at 104and 106 (see FIGS. 2 and 3) are then tightened in order to anchor theends of the plate to be engraved.

In operation, copy material or an image to be reproduced, for example adiploma or certificate or the like or a drawing of a desired printedcircuit, is wrapped on the copy portion 14 of the cylinder and fixedthereon. A flexible metal or plastic plate 96 to be engraved is wrappedon the plate portion 12 of the cylinder 10 and anchored thereon in themanner shown in FIG. 3. The cutter assembly 16 and scanner assembly 18are located in their desired positions and locked therein so as toremain stationary during an engraving operation. The motors 60 and 62are operated so as to rotate the cylinder carriage feed screw 54 and thecylinder 10. Consequently, upon movement of the handle 74 from theposition of FIG. 7 to the position of FIG. 6, the half-nut member 70will be engaged with the feed screw 54 thereby causing the entirecylinder carriage 26 including the rotating cylinder 10 to be movedaxially in a continuous manner relative to the cutter and scannermembers 16 and 18.

In the foregoing manner the scanner member 18 will scan along a spiralpath on the copy material mounted on the cylinder portion 14 while thecutter memberl6 will similarly cut along a spiral path on the flexibleplate 96 wrapped on the plate portion 12 of the cylinder 10 and therebyengrave on such plate in response to electrical signals received fromthe scanner member. Such an engraving operation will continue until thescanner 18 has completely scanned the entire image or copy to bereproduced. It will be recognized that whenever the handle 74 is movedto the position of FIG. 7 to disengage the nut member 70 from thecylinder carriage feed screw 54, the cylinder carriage 26may be movedmanually in either direction along the guide rods 42 and 44.

I claim:

I. An electronic engraving machine for engraving a right-reading imageon a flexible plate by scanning copy material comprising the image to bereproduced, the improvement comprising, in combination, cylinder meanson which a flexible plate to be engraved and copy material to bereproduced are wrapped in axially spaced relation, stationary scannermeans mounted alongside said cylinder adjacent said copy material forscanning the latter, stationary cutter means mounted alongside saidcylinder adjacent said flexible plate for engraving the latter, saidcutter being spaced axially along said cylinder from said scanner,cylinder carriage means on which said cylinder is rotatably joumalled,said cylinder carriage being slidably mounted on a pair of stationaryparallel guide rods for axial movement thereon alongside said scannerand cutter, cylinder drive means for rotating said cylinder, saidcylinder drive means being mounted on said cylinder carriage for axialmovement therewith, a cylinder carriage feed screw rotatably joumalledon said cylinder carriage and extending along the length of saidcylinder parallel to the cylinder axis, feed screw drive means forcontinuously rotating said feed screw, and nut means mountedindependently of said cylinder carriage for engagement with said feedscrew to effect axial movement of said feed screw when the latter isrotating and thereby effect axial movement of said cylinder carriagewhereby as said rotating cylinder is advanced axially past said scannerand cutter, said scanner will scan said copy material along a spiralpath and said cutter will engrave along a corresponding spiral path onsaid flexible plate in response to signals received from said scanner.

2. An electronic engraving machine in accordance with claim 1 whereinsaid cylinder drive means comprises a first drive motor mounted on saidcylinder carriage, and wherein said feed screw drive means comprises asecond drive motor mounted on said cylinder carriage.

3. An electronic engraving machine in accordance with claim 1 whereinsaid nut means is movable between an operative position wherein it isengaged with said feed screw and an inoperative position wherein it isdisengaged from said feed screw, said cylinder carriage being freelyslidable on said guide rods when said nut means is in its inoperativeposition.

4. An electronic engraving machine in accordance with claim 3 where saidnut means comprises a half-nut member mounted adjacent said feed screw,and spring means biasing said half-nut member into engagement with saidfeed screw. v

5. An electronic engraving machine for engraving a right-reading imageon a flexible plate by scanning copy material comprising the image to bereproduced, the improvement comprising, in combination, cylinder meanson which a flexible plate to be engraved and copy material to bereproduced are wrapped in axially spaced relation, stationary scannermeans mounted alongside said cylinder adjacent said copy material forscanning the latter, stationary cutter means mounted alongside saidcylinder adjacent said flexible plate for engraving the latter, saidcutter being spaced axially along said cylinder from said scanner,cylinder carriage means on which said cylinder is rotatably joumalled,said cylinder carriage being slidably mounted on a pair of stationaryparallel guide rods for axial movement thereon alongside said scannerand cutter, a first drive motor for rotating said cylinder, said firstdrive motor being mounted on said cylinder carriage for axial movementtherewith, a cylinder carriage feed screw rotatably journalled on saidcylinder carriage and extending along the length of said cylinderparallel to the cylinder axis, a. second drive motor for continuouslyrotating said feed screw, said second drive motor being mounted on saidcylinder carriage for axial movement therewith, and half-nut meansmounted independently of said cylinder carriage for engagement with saidfeed screw to effect axial movement of said feed screw when the latteris rotatingand thereby effect axial movement of said cylinder carriagewhereby as said rotating cylinder is advanced axially past said scannerand cutter, said scanner will scan said copy material along a spiralpath and said cutter will engrave along a corresponding spiral path onsaid flexible plate in response to signals received from said scanner,said half-nut means being movable between an operative position whereinit is engaged with said feed screw and an inoperative position whereinit is disengaged from said feed screw, and said cylinder carriage beingfreely slidable on said guide rods when said half-nut is in itsinoperative position.

1. An electronic engraving machine for engraving a right-reading imageon a flexible plate by scanning copy material comprising the image to bereproduced, the improvement comprising, in combination, cylinder meanson which a flexible plate to be engraved and copy material to bereproduced are wrapped in axially spaced relation, stationary scannermeans mounted alongside said cylinder adjacent said copy material forscanning the latter, stationary cutter means mounted alongside saidcylinder adjacent said flexible plate for engraving the latter, saidcutter being spaced axially along said cylinder from said scanner,cylinder carriage means on which said cylinder is rotatably journalled,said cylinder carriage being slidably mounted on a pair of stationaryparallel guide rods for axial movement thereon alongside said scannerand cutter, cylinder drive means for rotating said cylinder, saidcylinder drive means being mounted on said cylinder carriage for axialmovement therewith, a cylinder carriage feed screw rotatably journalledon said cylinder carriage and extending along the length of saidcylinder parallel to the cylinder axis, feed screw drive means forcontinuously rotating said feed screw, and nut means mountedindependently of said cylinder carriage for engagement with said feedscrew to effect axial movement of said feed screw when the latter isrotating and thereby effect axial movement of said cylinder carriagewhereby as said rotating cylinder is advanced axially past said scannerand cutter, said scanner will scan said copy material along a spiralpath and said cutter will engrave along a corresponding spiral path onsaid flexible plate in response to signals received from saidscanner.
 1. An electronic engraving machine for engraving aright-reading image on a flexible plate by scanning copy materialcomprising the image to be reproduced, the improvement comprising, incombination, cylinder means on which a flexible plate to be engraved andcopy material to be reproduced are wrapped in axially spaced relation,stationary scanner means mounted alongside said cylinder adjacent saidcopy material for scanning the latter, stationary cutter means mountedalongside said cylinder adjacent said flexible plate for engraving thelatter, said cutter being spaced axially along said cylinder from saidscanner, cylinder carriage means on which said cylinder is rotatablyjournalled, said cylinder carriage being slidably mounted on a pair ofstationary parallel guide rods for axial movement thereon alongside saidscanner and cutter, cylinder drive means for rotating said cylinder,said cylinder drive means being mounted on said cylinder carriage foraxial movement therewith, a cylinder carriage feed screw rotatablyjournalled on said cylinder carriage and extending along the length ofsaid cylinder parallel to the cylinder axis, feed screw drive means forcontinuously rotating said feed screw, and nut means mountedindependently of said cylinder carriage for engagement with said feedscrew to effect axial movement of said feed screw when the latter isrotating and thereby effect axial movement of said cylinder carriagewhereby as said rotating cylinder is advanced axially past said scannerand cutter, said scanner will scan said copy material along a spiralpath and said cutter will engrave along a corresponding spiral path onsaid flexible plate in response to signals received from said scanner.2. An electronic engraving machine in accordance with claim 1 whereinsaid cylinder drive means comprises a first drive motor mounted on saidcylinder carriage, and wherein said feed screw drive means comprises asecond drive motor mounted on said cylinder carriage.
 3. An electronicengraving machine in accordance with claim 1 wherein said nut means ismovable between an operative position wherein it is engaged with saidfeed screw and an inoperative position wherein it is disengaged fromsaid feed screw, said cylinder carriage being freely slidable on saidguide rods when said nut means is in its inoperative position.
 4. Anelectronic engraving machine in accordance with claim 3 where said nutmeans comprises a half-nut member mounted adjacent said feed screw, andspring means biasing said half-nut member into engagement with said feedscrew.